TSBG Family – Graduates

Profile: Christina Niederl

Place: Gnas, Stiria

Type of school & year of graduation: HLT 2016

Dear Christina, how did you become who you are now? What were your most important career stages?

I would say that the professional practical experience I gained during my time at the tourism school was an important part of my career and personal development. Since I had already completed all of my compulsory internships in grade 3, I organised two au pair jobs for myself during the following two summer holidays, once in Canada and once in Costa Rica. Foreign languages and cultural exchange have always been elements I was passionate about. Thus I decided to add another au pair period in Australia after graduating from tourism school. But my passion for the international was not yet completely satisfied, so after my return to Austria I started studying at the FH Joanneum in Graz in the field of “Management of International Business Processes”. The highlights of these 3 years were definitely the semester abroad in Santiago de Chile and the internship in Calgary (Canada), where I worked in marketing for a real estate company. After my studies, I worked for a short time as an assistant to the management in a digitalisation company in Graz, before I founded N&N Handel KG with the brand “Hofschneider Dirndln” together with my sister in June 2020. With our own company, we have already won the Vifzack 2021 (Innovation Award of Agriculture and Forestry) and were awarded third in the Styrian Entrepreneur of the Year 2021.

You founded your start-up Hofschneider Dirndln together with your sister in 2020.

Tell us about your start-up project in more detail…

If you think that we offer traditional dresses, the so-called Dirndl, in our 24-hour vending machines, you’re way off. Our vending machines are filled to the brim with regional products directly from the farmer! But why the name “Hofschneider Dirndln” then? Our own farm in Gnas (in south-eastern Styria) bears the local name “Hofschneider”. “Dirndln” is the Austrian German word for girls and since we three have been always called the “Hofschneider Dirndln”, it was immediately clear to us which name to give to our regional concept.  In combination with our pink design, we want to optimally combine innovation and tradition.

In our eye-catching vending machines, you will not only find basic foodstuffs such as eggs, milk, rice and pasta, but also delicacies such as homemade pastries, Styrian popcorn for a relaxed movie night, cheese and smoked sausages for a successful snack or Styrian pumpkin seed oil for the perfect salad in-between meals.

Fruit juices, yoghurt, spreads, snacks and dishes in jars are also on offer. And the best thing about it: everything comes directly from our farmers in the region or from small local businesses. We currently have over 70 different products from more than 35 local farmers in our range.

We currently operate six vending machines at locations in south-eastern Styria and Graz. These are: Gnas, Wildon, Prosdorf, Kalsdorf, LKH Graz and Graz-St. Peter.

What are your 3 most important ToDo’s?

1. Have a nice cup of coffee to start the day.
2. Start my laptop and answer e-mails or social media messages and comments that come in.
3. Everything to do with our vending machines: Checking vending machine stocks, reordering products, planning expansions of our range, providing assistance to customers, planning social media + creating content, posting invoices, etc.

What do you love most about your work?

For me, the best things about being self-employed are definitely the freedom to organise my work, the perfect mix of office work and field work and, above all, that I can work in all areas of the company. For me, it has always been a challenge to find out which department in a company best suits my interests. In a two-woman show, like my sister and I are, you have the full range of tasks. You’re pretty much everything there: from the marketing department to accounting, controlling, quality management, stock management, restocking and sales. It’s exactly these broad areas of responsibility that make my work so varied for me and this is the reason why I really enjoy going to work every day!

Did you always want to go in this direction? What were your motivations to start your own business?

Was the topic of your business idea or the fact of starting your own business more decisive and what were the biggest challenges in the start-up phase?

There has always been an entrepreneur in me, just waiting for the right idea to make the dream come true. My greatest motivation was and is to support our regional (small) businesses by selling their products in our vending machines. Rural businesses do an excellent job in producing their food and beverages and this appreciation needs to be brought back into the limelight. This is what we try to support with our concept.

The biggest challenges in the start-up phase were certainly to efficiently set up the entire logistics, to organise the financial means for the purchase of the machines and, alongside the stress at the beginning, to achieve a healthy work-life balance.

The Corona pandemic still accompanies our everyday life. Did the crisis play into your hands with your business model? Where was it perhaps easier and where more difficult?

The idea for our business was born before the Corona pandemic, but the entire implementation took place in the lockdown period. We definitely had challenges around the topic of setting up a business and all the legal information and applications that were necessary for this. The restricted opening hours of the offices responsible for this and the purely online appointments caused us problems from time to time, especially when it came to the pace we tried to set.

What definitely played into our hands, however, was the change in people’s attitudes towards regional food. Suddenly, shopping was no longer just about the cheapest product, but about the origin and quality of the food produced. Many consumers started to take a conscious interest in farm products and put them on their shopping list.  With our offer, which consists of 100% regional food and beverages, we were just in time. The 24-hour availability also played an important role in times of limited opening hours.

As a committed and successful entrepreneur, you also have to be a visionary and have the energy to implement it. What are your visions for your business project? Where should the great journey be heading to?

Our big vision is to be able to supply people in the most diverse places with our farm products. Sustainable working should always be at the top of our agenda. For example, we have installed return flaps on all our vending machines so that empty egg cartons, jars and bottles can be returned effortlessly. We then pick them up again at the next refill route and return the empties to the respective farmers. In this way, every customer has the opportunity to make a contribution to the circular economy and thus to environmental protection. By implementing “small” steps like this, we want to show our customers again and again how important individual help is for our common existence. Where exactly the journey will take us, I cannot yet define. But let’s put it this way: I still have a lot of ideas in my head that are waiting to be implemented. 😉

We are particularly proud of our network at the school and try to raise awareness of its relevance among students from the very beginning. How important is it now really as an entrepreneur, how much time do you invest in expanding and maintaining your network?

For me, building a network is one of the most important things in building a business. I always attend events to gain new impressions and meet inspiring personalities. Especially at the beginning, it is essential to go out with your idea, tell as many people as possible about your project and get valuable feedback. For me, too, conversations at network meetings have often been a great opportunity to look at my business model from a new perspective and to start the further implementation with a suitcase full of new ideas. A strong network opens many new doors that you might not have found on your own.

As we all know, the best way to learn is from the mistakes and successes of others.

Do you have an example of your personal career do’s and don’ts for our TSBG family?

A DON’T would be to focus purely on building a business and neglect rest periods and breaks. The beginning is never easy and it definitely takes a lot of time, but especially in this start-up phase, having free time brings a lot of motivation to continue with full energy.

In my opinion, it is an absolute DO to get constant feedback. It’s best to do this not only with friends and family, who will hopefully be very supportive of your ideas anyway, but with people outside. An outside perspective can often work wonders, especially when you are stuck.

Another DO, especially for all women entrepreneurs out there: Be confident in what you do. In a world that is still very much dominated by male decision-makers, it is often difficult for a young woman to assert herself or to be taken seriously right from the start. Hence, my appeal to you: Get out there, stand by your business idea and don’t let it get you down.

Pictures: Nicole Viktorik